18th April, 2022

Hello all,

Preparations for our exhibition are in full swing and are occupying most of my time. So, I'm afraid I'm a little short on content for this week's post. I hope to make up for it in the next couple of weeks.

I was removing some dead leaves from my strelitzia reginae and couldn't resist these two, partially dried leaves. And, as Lucy and I were looking through the garden for materials, she noticed a single, yellow kniphofia. Thus, my arrangement came together. I wanted to emphasise the clean lines of the stems, especially at the base of this simple arrangement.

A few days later, when the kniphofia died, I replaced it with a strelitzia reginae, which flowered out of season.

In my arrangement, below, I used the leaves from Iris Japonica and the berries of the stinking iris, Iris Foetidissima. The flowers of this iris are small and rather insignificant. I rarely use them in ikebana. I grow them for the berries which burst out of their seed heads in a bright orangey red colour. I have to be quick to cut them when they do before the birds get to them. They are highly poisonous to humans but not to birds.

The fern in this next arrangement had self seeded next to the water tank and I have to keep cutting it back because it will take over the whole area if left unchecked. I keep looking for different ways to use it. The fronds are quite large, so by stripping most of the leaves, I created a longer stem and an interesting, diamond shape at the tip of the fronds. The crucifix orchids complemented the lightness of the ferns.

I mentioned on a previous post that the generous people at the store called Tombo had let me borrow an antique, Japanese table and large ceramic urn for my exhibit at MIFGS. As a thank you, I offered to make an ikebana  arrangement, using one of the containers they have for sale. That's the arrangement, below.

The possums have been particularly troublesome this year. Not only do they eat any fruit that is not protected but they've also been denuding a number of our trees by eating the leaves. It's incredibly frustrating especially since there is nothing we can do about it. I managed to save one tomarillo from our little tree to use in this wall arrangement.

I'm including the flyer for our exhibition again, just in case some of you have missed it.

Bye for now,

Emily